Mark Llewellyn hired as executive producer of 7News Spotlight

Producer Mark Llewellyn returns to Seven as executive producer of 7News Spotlight, a series of prime-time investigative specials.

Mark Llewellyn. Picture: Adam Taylor

The Seven Network will bring in big-name television producer Mark Llewellyn, who quit arch rival Nine this year, to helm its new-look investigative reporting specials.

Llewellyn, who famously revealed one-time Nine chief executive Eddie McGuire wanted to “bone” former Today show host Jessica Rowe, left his former employer in January, only two years after returning from a stint at Seven.

He had been Nine’s news and current affairs creative director, and previously worked as the managing director of 60 Minutes and executive producer of Seven’s Sunday Night.

Llewellyn returns to the Kerry Stokes-controlled Seven as executive producer of 7News Spotlight, a series of prime-time investigative specials. Sunday Night was axed last year due to declining ratings and budget cuts.

Seven’s news and public affairs boss Craig McPherson confirmed Llewellyn’s appointment, and said 7News Spotlight would be a “free-range show”.

“We want to be that vehicle to open up the domain, take it away from sheltered environments of the older models,” McPherson told The Australian on Thursday.

Unlike 60 Minutes, 7News Spotlight would not have a designated time, allowing it to “jump on major news events and turn things around within 24 hours or so”, McPherson said.

“And it will also have the other strand, which will be the more long form in-depth stories that hopefully resonate with Australians, so we keep our toe in the water on that genre.”

“It’s an economically tailored model. It’s up to use to make it work and I’m confident we can.”

Llewellyn’s last move from Nine to Seven, in 2006, turned into a serious clash between the rival networks and a legal battle, which drew in McGuire and other senior executives.

At the time, Llewellyn jumped ship to Seven after a bungled demotion attempt, a decision that landed in court.

He had been hand-picked by Packer family loyalist Sam Chisholm, who ran the network, to be Nine’s head of news and current affairs. But after Chisholm’s departure, Llewellyn was demoted and hit with a $350,000 pay cut.

It was during that legal battle that Llewellyn’s damning affidavit about management — including McGuire’s comments about his breakfast show star — were leaked.

Llewellyn told The Australian that 7News Spotlight would not be confined to “filling the gap left by 60 Minutes”.

“We’re carving fresh tracks through new snow,” he said.

“This is a new show for a new age … the most revolutionary concept I’ve seen in years. This is not an old show weighed down by history and bloated budgets.

“As Big Kev so eloquently put it, ‘I’m excited’.”

He joins Seven’s investigative reporter Denham Hitchcock, who is already at 7News Spotlight, with both reporting to McPherson. The next investigation looks into the disappearance of baby Azaria Chamberlain in 1980.

The special — called The Lindy Tapes — will air on August 16, a month after its first special about the tragic death of three siblings in Sydney earlier this year.

Llewellyn, the first television journalist to track down fugitive Australian businessman Christopher Skase to Majorca, has been Nine’s London correspondent and the executive producer of A Current Affair.